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🇰🇪 hashtag#Kenya has become the emerging leader for carbon dioxide removal (hashtag#CDR) in the Global South with a thriving domestic start-up scene, international companies increasingly setting up shop, and a favourable government.
What are Kenya’s climate commitments?
🥇 Although Kenya contributes less than 0.1 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions annually, it was one of the first countries in Africa to enact a comprehensive law and policy to guide national and subnational climate action.
🎯 Kenya has committed to reducing its emissions by 32 percent by 2030 relative to the business-as-usual scenario and has committed to Net-Zero by 2050.
💱 Kenya issued more carbon credits than any other African country (approximately 20% of total African credits) and has been gearing up to create a favourable carbon market. It recently released its anticipated Climate Change (Carbon Markets) Regulations which outline the procedure and requirements for developing carbon projects in Kenya.
Which CDR methods is Kenya prioritising?
⚡ Kenya has significant renewable energy capacity and is the world’s seventh-largest producer of geothermal energy. Geothermal and other renewable energy sources account for around 90% of grid electricity in the country lending themselves to direct air carbon capture and storage (hashtag#DACCS) in particular.
🌱 It's not just DACCS though, Kenya has a thriving biochar scene and also its first ERW company, Flux. Bio-Logical secured a $1M seed round at the end of last year. In February, they sold 10,000 tons of carbon emissions to Microsoft which will help them build the largest hashtag#biochar facility in Africa.
🌳 In February, Microsoft made a six-year offtake agreement to purchase 350,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits from an agroforestry project in Kenya which was funded, designed and managed by Catona Climate in collaboration with Trees for the Future.
🫰 It’s really promising to see Kenya take such a driving seat in CDR. However, for it to reach its full potential as a CDR hub, it needs to be able to attract more financing which tends to be harder in the Global North. Stay tuned as they will soon be launching their CDR Association, CRAKen.
📣 Shoutout to some of the companies and organisations leading the way on CDR in particular in Kenya: Octavia Carbon, Great Carbon Valley, Bio-Logical, and Flux.
👯 The rockstars playing a leading role Fiona Mugambi, Duncan Kariuki, Mike Bwondera, Diana Maranga, Martin Freimüller, Bilha Ndirangu, James Mwangi, Rory Buckworth, Philip Hunter, Ines Serra Baucells, Samuel Rigu, Sam Davies & Nils Razmilovic.